Pastel Ruby
by Sonic226
Summary: Ruby Rose wakes up in the wrong bed. In the wrong dorm. In the wrong school. And come to think of it, some other things might be just a little bit out of place as well.
1. The Wrong Side of Bed

Ruby Rose was just waking up bright and early in the morning. She was excited to hear Weiss's praise for getting into such a good natural sleeping pattern. At the start of the year, Ruby would regularly have to be woken up by her teammates after staying up too late, but now, she was waking up at what she could only assume was 7:30 AM or so, in her nice cozy bed with its warm green blanket...

Wait, green blanket? That's not right, it's a red blanket, isn't it? She looked up and saw the sheet hung over her bed was black instead of white, as it always had been. Weird, did someone wake up early and replace all the blankets? Was she going colorblind? Can that happen this late in life?

She sat up on her top bunk and looked around the room. The walls were black, the rug on the floor and the curtains were green, what was going on here? Then she smelled something cooking and remembered that it was Monday, the day Weiss made everyone breakfast to get an early start on the day. Ruby liked Mondays a lot for this very reason. Sure, it was just waffles, but they were TEAM waffles! That made them all the more delicious!

She hopped out of bed, still in her pajamas, and glanced at the clock. 8:25!? Did they let her sleep in or something? Oh gosh, did she miss breakfast?! She then heard a melodious humming from the makeshift kitchen area and looked over to see... well, someone. It sounded like Weiss, and the context of what she was doing and her the sound of her humming definitely would lead Ruby to believe it was Weiss, but her hair was long, flow freeing, and black. And her skin was healthily tanned, unlike Weiss's smooth alabaster complexion. She wore a school uniform, identical to Beacon's, except the colors seemed wrong, the skirt was a dark sage green and the jackets were white.

Ruby was really confused. "Uh... good morning...?" She said, unsure of who she was even speaking to. The girl turned around, revealing delicate features, a warm sunny face with topaz colored eyes. "Oh, Peri, you're-" She said, stopping short as she saw Ruby. She seemed puzzled, looking Ruby up and down. "Are... you trying something new today? With your hair?" She asked. One of Ruby's hands went to fiddle with her hair nervously. "U-Um..." She didn't really know how to respond to the girl. Did she sleep in the wrong dorm? Oh, that'd be embarrassing... not that... she's ever done that before, at Patch, obviously.

Schwarz squinted as she inspected Ruby. "No, that's... who are you?" She asked. Ruby cleared her throat a bit. "U-Uh, Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY... is this not... I-I thought this was my dorm...?" She quietly responded. Then, another girl walked out of the bathroom, this one had long curly white hair that fell down to her shoulders, and wore an identically incorrect uniform, with somewhat of a more poofy skirt. "So, are we waking Peri up-" She said before stopping short once she caught sight of Ruby. "Uh... Peri, did you change up your pajamas...? And your hair...? And your eyes...?" She asked.

Yet another girl walked out from the bathroom, she had short length, straight purple hair and intelligent golden eyes, and she also wore the strange uniform. She almost looked like Yang, actually, they had a similar build. "Are the pancakes ready-" She saw Ruby and examined her in confusion. Ruby blushed faintly and squirmed a bit, she didn't like being the center of attention. At least when it came to social situations with strangers. "...I-I... I-I'll just go..." She said, slowly stepping to the door of the dorm. Then, the first girl spoke up. "No, please, take a seat, I'm sorry if we distressed you..." She said, kindly pulling out a chair for Ruby.

The white-haired girl's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, are we making you uncomfortable?! Sorry!" She said, with a very sweet tone. The purple-haired girl nodded. "Right, sorry, we'll get this sorted out..." She said. Ruby hesitantly took a seat. "So, um... I-I just think I goofed up and w-went to the wrong dorm room, I'm on Team RWBY..." She said, not having the confidence to meet eyes with any of the girls. "Team RWBY? Which year is that?" The black-haired girl said, dishing out some pancakes to everyone. Weird, it's like EVERYTHING in this dorm is different, even the food they make for breakfast.

"W-We're first year..." She said. Had she ended up in a senior dorm or something? Oh, jeez, that'd be really embarrassing... she'd feel like a middle schooler getting lost on a college campus or something, and that's probably how these girls would see her. "Strange... so are we, and we've never heard of your team..." The purple-haired girl said. Ruby visibly looked more distressed at this, so the black-haired girl thought it'd be best to distract her. "Introductions are in order, hm? I'm Schwarz, it's very nice to meet you." She said, smiling assuringly. "I'm Timber!" The white-haired girl said. "And I'm Liang." The last of the three said.

Ruby had a few bites of her pancake before taking a deep breath and trying to smile confidently. "My name's Ruby Rose! Nice to... meetcha... all..." She said, trailing off into uncertainty.


	2. The Right Side of Bed

**I've been told that being more casual is actually NOT a bad thing, so, I'm putting this little thing here, thus breaking my silence. Hi there. I would like it on the record that I wrote both of these chapters in one day in a random burst of inspiration. I don't know how I did it.**

 **Also, not mad, but I notice THIS story got 75 views in ONE day with ONE chapter, and frankly that's a bit unfair when I have another fic that I put way more work into that has like SIX chapters? Whatever, I encourage you check it out if you like OCs, if that's not your thing, I get it, that's why you're reading this... wait, this has OCs too. Whatever, I'm rambling, read the story, is it good? Tell me so, please, or tell me if it's not, tell me EXACTLY what was wrong with it and I'll work to improve, that's why they invented reviews. Bye now, enjoy.**

Weiss Schnee had gotten up bright and early in the morning, as was customary for her. She got up a little extra early so that she could get started on breakfast for her team. She'd started making them some simple stuff, waffles or toast, on Mondays so that they could do a bit of studying before they even went to class, and not even bother with going to breakfast.

She'd started her routine, waking up at precisely 7:00 AM, taking a quick, cold shower, getting dressed in her uniform, and now she was making breakfast. She trusted her team to wake up on their own most of the time, or at least wake each other up, but eventually, she went to go get Ruby. She must've stayed up too late.

She walked over from the makeshift kitchen area to her and Ruby's bunks, climbing up to gently, yet sternly wake her up. She nudged the girl, who'd shifted so much in her sleep she was under the covers. "Ruby, it's time to get up..." She quietly said. She heard a childish groan. "Too earlyyy..." The girl whined. Weiss rolled her eyes and pulled the sheet back. This was the point where she realized this girl was not Ruby Rose.

She had the same youthful features and pale skin, but her hair was just a tad longer and even a bit brighter than Ruby's, fading into green as it reached the bottom instead of red. Her pajamas too, they were also different, a white tank top with a green diamond on it, with black pajama pants that had vine designs sprawling around it, riddled with thorns. As the girl stretched, yawned, and finally opened her dark, dark brown eyes, she saw Weiss and reacted accordingly.

"AHH!" She shrieked, backing away to the corner of the bunk and holding the blanket up as if it would protect her. "WHO THE HECK ARE YOU!? WHERE AM I!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY TEAMMATES?!" She yelled. She sounded very much like Ruby, though Weiss had never seen Ruby quite so hysterical.

Yang came into the room after hearing what sounded like her sister freaking out. "Ruby, you okay?" She shouted from across the room. As she approached, the dark-eyed girl shrieked again. "OH NO, REINFORCEMENTS!" She said and then threw a pillow at Yang, which barely phased her. "Jeez, calm down, did you have a nightmare or something-oh, that's not Ruby, huh?" She said as she finally caught sight of the girl.

Weiss climbed down, a bit surprised by all this. "I have no idea who she is, I just went to wake Ruby up and she was in her bed instead!" Weiss explained. Blake walked up to the two. "What's happening?" She asked. Yang put her hands on her hips, trying to figure out how to deal with this situation as she scanned the scene. "Weird girl in Ruby's bed. She's throwing pillows." Yang said. "What do we do about it?" Blake asked, more confused than concerned. Yang shrugged. "Wait til she's out of pillows?"

Weiss sighed. "Obviously this girl must be one of the students here for the tournament..." Weiss said, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for this. "Oh, you think someone pranked her by putting her in Ruby's bed? Like CRDL?" Yang asked. "For their sake, I hope not... I'd like to believe they've learned their lesson by this point." Blake said. "Whatever the case, we need to calm her down and report this to the school." Weiss said, walking over to the kitchen and dishing out food.

Yang raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?" She asked as Weiss served up breakfast. She grabbed a plate and a glass of milk. "I'm bringing her breakfast, maybe she'll calm down that way." Weiss said, carefully climbing up to the top bunk with both food and drink. She expected the girl would calm down, or at least stop throwing pillows with the offer of food, but found that not to be the case as the plate of food was smacked up into her face.

She fell backward, thankfully caught by Yang before she hit the floor, her face and uniform covered in syrup and milk. Weiss couldn't properly express her anger with words, so she just let out something in between a frustrated groan and a scream, storming off to clean up. The girl called out to her. "I DON'T APOLOGIZE, YOU COULD'VE POISONED THAT!"

Yang shook her head and sighed, climbing up to the top bunk. "Hey theeeeeere, spazzy. What's up?" She said. The girl was wrapped in blankets, holding a pillow at the ready. "No sudden movements! I won't hesitate!" She said, trying to sound intimidating, and failing, prompting Yang to let out a few chuckles. "Listen, we're not gonna hurt you, we have no idea how you got here. I'm Yang, will you please tell us your name so we can call Ozpin about this?" She said. She'd dealt with sugar crazy Ruby before, and this was pretty similar. The girl narrowed her eyes, looking for any signs of deceit. "...If you must know, my name is Peridot Thorn, supreme leader of Team PSTL!" She said triumphantly.

Yang smiled at this. "Right then, mighty leader, why don't you come down from here and have some waffles with us?" Yang asked. Peridot considered this for a moment. "...No pancakes...?" She asked. Yang shook her head. "Nope, sorry." She said. Peridot sighed. "I GUESS waffles will do... but back away so I can get down without any sneak attacks!" She said, still holding her pillow. Yang did so, making sure Blake was also abiding by this girl's paranoid rules.

Peridot quickly climbed down from the top bunk and looked around, gasping every so often, then trying to hide her surprise. Yang was confused. "Uh... something wrong?" She asked her. "SO, YOU THINK YOU CAN RIP OFF MY TEAM'S SIGNATURE DORM LOOK AND JUST CHANGE UP A FEW OF THE COLORS, HUH?! HAVE YOU BEEN SPYING ON US?!" She snapped back. Blake looked up at her, stone-faced. "We have no idea what you're talking about." She said.

Just then, Weiss walked out of the bathroom with a fresh uniform on, glaring at Peridot. The short girl noticed this and seemed to visibly wince at the heiress's gaze, quickly looking away and fiddling with her hair. "Why is everybody staring at meeeeeeeeeeee?!" She said, glancing around rapidly. "Because you're yelling...?" Yang responded. "I'M BEING AS LOUD AS I NEED TO IN THIS SCENARIO!" She shouted. "OH, JUST SHUT UP!" Weiss yelled at her. Peridot jumped a bit at this, she seemed to be really hurt by the tone she'd used. But then she just folded her arms and pouted, stomping her way to the kitchen table and sitting down.

Weiss took out her scroll to call the office of the school immediately, the sooner this girl was gone and Ruby was back, the better.


	3. Meeting Ozpin

**Hey there, sorry for the wait, I was REALLY distracted with things. I say that, it's only been like a week since I uploaded the story, I'd say I'm making ALRIGHT time, I just don't feel like I am.**

 **So, yeah, enjoy, don't enjoy too much though, don't ignore problems in my writing, cause like, I wanna improve constantly, but, yeah, enjoy it a little bit.**

Ruby was really trying her best right now. She was trying not to freak out, or get all anxious, but it was hard, she was in a dorm with three strangers and had no idea where her teammates were.

Her hosts were trying their best to accommodate her. The pancakes were great, and Timber was trying to start some casual conversation, complimenting Ruby on her pajamas and going on about how much she likes flowers.

Schwarz was assuring her just through body language. She seemed to exude an air of acceptance and amity with only her smile. At moments, it sorta felt like Ruby's friends were still here, they were being so nice. But Ruby SERIOUSLY wanted to get back to her dorm, and that's why Liang was calling the office out in the hall.

She walked back into the dorm after a minute. "Okay, we're taking Ruby to Ozpin's office, he'll get this all sorted out." She said, much to Ruby's relief. Professor Ozpin was probably the smartest person in the whole school, she suddenly felt a lot better about this whole situation. She'd be laughing about this with her teammates in no time.

"Ooh, do we get to skip the first period?!" Timber asked excitedly.

Liang sighed. "No, Timber, we're just walking her to the office, then it's off to class." She replied, reasonably. Liang was clearly the most mature of the group, whereas Timber was the opposite.

"Ugh, but the first ten minutes are just an old man telling boring stories! That's all we'd miss!" Timber protested. Schwarz didn't seem to take either side, she didn't like conflict.

As those two argued, Schwarz looked over at Ruby. "I take it you won't want to be out and about dressed like that, hm?" She queried. Ruby blushed, sort of forgetting that she was in her pajamas in front of these girls.

"U-Uh, yeah, d-do you have a spare uniform...?" She asked, realizing this was a stupid question, of course they did, their leader was missing.

Schwarz just nodded. "Peri's uniform is in the drawer over there," She said, pointing it out. "You can put it on in the restroom, it should be around your size."

Ruby nodded and retrieved the uniform, colored strangely, just like the rest of the team's. She went to go put it on, finding it to be just her size. She looked in the mirror, thinking she looked strange in this bizarro-uniform. Whatever, she'd be back in her regular uniform in no time. She walked out to see the team ready to go, Timber still a bit grumpy about having to attend Grimm Studies.

"Alright, let's go." Liang said, leading the team in the absence of this Peri girl. The four walked out into the hall, all the way to Ozpin's office, and... Ruby did not like what she saw. Everything was so different. All the colors were wrong, the white walls were black, the red curtains green, all the students were strange, she'd never seen them before, they were all wearing those uniforms...

Schwarz saw this and whispered to Ruby. "Is something wrong?"

Ruby was about to really freak out, this was weird, she was scared, she didn't recognize anyone here or the uniforms... but they were going to Ozpin. Professor Ozpin, they were DEFINITELY at Beacon, he was the headmaster... there's some explanation to this, there has to be... new dress code? And a new paint job for the school? And everyone got new haircuts and Ruby just can't recognize them?

The girl just shook her head. "J-Just nervous to meet with Professor Ozpin, I-I don't wanna bother him..." She stammered. Eventually, they'd made it to the office.

Liang turned to Ruby. "So... see you around?" She said.

Ruby nodded. "Y-Yeah, thanks again..." The girl responded, very grateful for the team's assistance.

The three left Ruby there, after one last kind smile from Schwarz, and Ruby looked at Ozpin's office door. Everything was still wrong looking. She just took a deep breath and entered the room.

And there sat a man who was not Ozpin.

His suit was white, his shirt underneath was red, even his hair was a dark black rather than the stark white color Ruby remembered it as. The man took a sip from a black cup of tea. "Ms. Rose, was it?" He asked. He sounded like Ozpin but... and his name was Ozpin but... he sorta looked like him but...

"...P-Professor Ozpin help I have no idea what's going on everything's weird and different and the wrong color and it's really freaking me out!" Ruby yelled, all in one rapid-fire sentence.

The supposed Ozpin paused, before taking another sip of his drink. "Young girl... what is the name of this academy?" He asked.

"What?" Ruby asked. "It's... it's Beacon, why does that-"

"Ms. Rose, this academy is called Veil." Ozpin said, looking at her curiously.

Ruby blinked for a second. "It... no, that's the kingdom, Vale." Ruby replied, utterly confused at her headmaster's words.

"The kingdom we are in is called Knoll, Ms. Rose, this academy is called Veil." He explained.

Ruby was about to pass out, none of this made sense. Where was Yang? Where was Blake? Where was Weiss? Where was SHE?

"Ms. Rose, your teammates, what were their names?" Ozpin asked, walking over to a terminal on his desk.

Ruby Rose just tried to breathe steadily. "Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long..." She said, eyes closed, trying to keep her grip on consciousness. Ozpin typed the names in, looking through the databases of the different academies here for the tournament.

"Ms. Rose, no students by those names exist in Veil's, or any academy's records." He said, sounding somewhat confused. Ruby just stared at him, opening her mouth to speak, but unable to find any words.

Then she fainted.


	4. Someone Else's Problem

**Hello there, sorry for the wait, I am lazy. That wait's going to continue because I'm sorta busy with a different story that I'm writing just for a friend cause they're great, so, expect a little bit of a pause. If it makes anything up to you, it'll probably give me time to figure out where this is going, at all.**

 **So, probably won't update til' next year, sooooooo... sorry, happy holidays.**

Yang and Blake didn't know how Weiss had done it, but she'd calmed this Peridot girl down.

Well, they sort of knew how: she'd yelled at her. Yang had tried to handle the situation with more care, and so had Weiss at first, just offering the girl some breakfast, but she'd gotten fed up. They were now discussing how to handle the situation.

"I say we turn her over to the authorities, she's obviously a dangerous idiot." Weiss said, arms folded across her chest. She was, fair enough, a bit bitter after having a breakfast platter spilled on her.

"Weiss, she's just lost, we should bring her to a teacher or something. Ruby's what I'm more concerned about, I'll try and call her." Yang said, taking out her scroll and dialing her sister's number. She heard a ringtone and turned her head to see it on a desk by Ruby's bunk. "Huh, guess she doesn't have her scroll with her... that's... pretty bad."

Blake saw that Yang looked worried. Not too much outwardly, Yang liked to maintain a laid-back attitude, but Blake knew that she was probably very worried about her sister. "Yang, it's fine, we'll just call the office and the staff will help us sort this out. Ruby'll probably be back by the end of the day with some explanation." Blake said, trying to ease the blonde's worries.

Weiss nodded. "She's right, a quick call to Ozpin and this will all be sorted with. And we'll never have to deal with this girl again..." She said, giving Peridot a quick glare.

Peridot, eating her breakfast at the table, stuck her tongue out at Weiss, before returning to her waffles. "I'll go call them," Yang said, stepping out into the hallway. "You two make sure she doesn't freak out again." She said. Her teammates nodded, one a little more bitter than the other, and she left to make the call.

The girl ate more of her meal, muttering to herself. "I don't even like waffles... pancakes are way better..." She said, as sort of an insult to Weiss, but she still muttered them mostly to herself.

Blake looked over at the girl. "Why don't you get dressed? You can use one of Ruby's uniforms, they'll probably fit you." Blake said.

Peridot gave it some thought, munching on a waffle. "Hmm... I'd rather go around in my pajamas than your weirdo uniforms. I could just wrap my cape aro-" Her eyes widened. "MY CAPE! I DON'T HAVE MY CAPE!"

Before she could get too far into her panic, Weiss spoke up. "We can get you a cape, now quiet down!" She shouted at the girl. Peridot jolted from that, nearly toppling out of the chair, but catching herself, and trying to play it off. Weiss stomped over to a dresser and opened the designated hood drawer that Ruby had claimed.

"Is this a good idea? It seems like Ruby's sort of attached to that hood, she wears it over her uniform." Blake said, feeling that they should at least let Yang have a say in the distribution of her sister's property.

Weiss sighed. "You're right, I just wanted her to shut her mouth as fast as possible..." She said, turning to the girl. "Listen, you're wearing a uniform whether you like it or not, it's already set out on my bunk there." Weiss said, gesturing to the uniform that was set out for Ruby.

Peridot grumbled as she stomped over to the uniform, taking it with her into the bathroom and putting it on. They looked weird to the girl, they weren't like her usual uniforms. She stepped out, pouting grumpily.

Just then, Yang walked back in. "Alright, we just gotta take her to Ozpin's office, and he'll get her back to her team and get Ruby back with us." She said, her concern sufficiently eased.

Weiss nodded and turned to Peridot. "Come on, and no screaming in the halls." She said, walking through the doorway ahead of her team.

Peridot scoffed. "As if I would EVER scream in the hall, I barely EVER scream, you're acting like I'm a little kid." The girl said with a huff.

"It certainly feels like it..." Weiss said below her breath as she left the room. Peridot luckily didn't hear, and she, Yang, and Blake followed the heiress.

Peridot was not enjoying the walk there. Everywhere she looked, it was wrong. The walls were wrong, the curtains were wrong, the students were wrong, their uniforms were wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The only thing keeping her from flipping out was spite, towards Weiss for treating her like a little kid. She'd show her. She didn't let out a single peep, no matter how much she wanted to scream her head off.

They got to Ozpin's office eventually, stopping just outside of it. "Alright, now off to class for us," Weiss said, turning to Peridot. "And hopefully, we won't be seeing you again. Good day." She walked off, Blake and Yang following.

Peridot rolled her eyes with a huff, turning to Ozpin's office doors. "Okay... time for all my problems to go away..." She said, and with a deep breath, she pushed open the headmaster's doors.

They spoke for about three minutes at most before Peridot ran out of his office, green petals trailing behind her. "'NOT A STUDENT AT ANY ACADEMY'?! 'THIS SCHOOL'S CALLED BEACON'!? 'NEVER HEARD OF AUTUMN THORN'!?" She yelled out to no one as she ran through halls, coming to a stop at an intersection of three, full of students just waking up. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS CRAZY PLACE!?"

"Uh..." A voice spoke, Peridot whipped her head around to see a scraggly blond young man. "Are you... okay...?" He asked.

"I'M TOTALLY FINE, DON'T TALK TO ME!" She rushed off after that, as Jaune Arc's teammates approached him to watch her run off.

"Yeesh, sorry Jaune, you're just no good with the ladies," Nora said, hands on her hips. "Don't worry, I'll give ya some pointers sometime!"

"W-What? I-I wasn't trying to ask her out, sh-she just seemed-"

"Suuuuuure, Jaunney boy... suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure..." Nora interrupted.

Pyrrha looked off in the direction Peridot ran. "She seems like she needs help..." She said, concerned.

Ren nodded. "She IS screaming at the top of her lungs in a public space."

"So?" Nora asked. "I do that, and I'm PERFECTLY fine!" She said, smiling widely.

"Well, some people are more subdued, and only yell when they're distressed," Ren responded.

Jaune nodded. "Y-Yeah, we should go help her out, she's probably lost or something... this school's layout is really confusing..." He said, remembering his first day here.

Team JNPR then went off to try and help the very lost girl.


	5. Ruby Realizes

**Hey, this is back, happy new year. Sorry for the wait, I'm lazy** **and also writing this by the seat of my pants.** **But here it is, enjoy.**

Ruby Rose awoke in the nurse's office. Well, on a bed in the nurse's office, because she'd fainted, which is a bit concerning. As she awoke, all the fear and confusion hit her again all at once. Where was she? Why was everything different? Where were her teammates? She woozily sat up on the bed, looking over to see some milk and a cookie set out for her. She sighed quietly. "At least the milk's not black or something..." She mumbled, grabbing the glass and taking a sip.

She tried to rationalize her situation, that's what Weiss would tell her to do. Everything is... wrong. Wrong colors, wrong names, wrong people. But SOME things were the same. This was still a huntsmen academy, there were teams of four, the headmaster was still called Ozpin... just then, she saw something else on the table next to the bed, a note.

She picked it up, reading quietly to herself. "'Miss Rose, until I am able to ascertain exactly what is going on here, you will be temporarily staying with team PSTL, as their leader, Peridot Thorn, has gone missing. You will round out the four teammate requirement to form Team STLR, serving under temporary leader Schwarz Asche. Do your best to meld with them while you stay here. You will have a few days before classes'... ugh, just great, I'm stuck on a team with a bunch of strangers!" She flopped back miserably, sighing. "At least they seem nice..."

Just then, the aforementioned nice strangers entered her room. "Oh, you're up, good..." Schwarz said, looking concerned for the girl she'd only met today.

Ruby looked at the three, thinking to herself. 'Guess these are my teammates for a while then... hope they're not too different to Blake, Weiss, and Yang...' She thought, looking them over.

Her new leader (that was going to be odd, not being team leader) seemed really nice, the sort of person who everyone liked. She'd been caring and hospitable to Ruby, and seemed like she'd make a good replacement for Weiss's duties, y'know, making sure Ruby doesn't sleep in, reminding her to brush her teeth, helping her with her stance, that sort of thing.

Liang seemed like the most mature of the group, which was only strengthened by her height compared to Schwarz and herself. She kinda looked like a librarian to Ruby, it was the conservative clothing and careful posture. She seemed like a good Weiss surrogate too, she's responsible, reliable, and... probably busy keeping Timber under control, actually. Sorta weird having two responsible people on the team... or, at least two responsible people that spoke up often. Blake usually just went along with Yang and Ruby's enthusiasm, but this girl wasn't all that Blake-y, she was more like... Ruby's dad, that sort of vibe.

Then there's Timber, who seemed like the most outgoing of the group. She thought they could be pretty good friends, she could sorta be like a new Yang. Except Yang was sort of always... well, she wasn't serious, but she wasn't the particular brand of pep that Timber was. She and Liang reminded her a bit of Nora and Ren, they had a similar dynamic. She and Nora got along pretty well, so this wouldn't be too bad.

Then, she looked at all three at once and thought. She just looked at them, what they looked like, and it hit her, and she felt like a dolt for not noticing how obvious it was. "Are... you okay there?" Timber asked, cocking her head a bit in confusion at Ruby's sudden wide-eyed expression.

Ruby responded with just two words. "...Everything's backwards."

"Huh?" Timber said, still confused.

Schwarz's concerned expression rose more. "What do you mean, Ruby...?"

"I mean that I figured out what's going on! Sort of, at least the mechanic of it!" Ruby shouted, reveling in her eureka moment. "Everything here, in this school, is the opposite of how it is in my school!"

Timber's puzzlement faded. "Oh, don't get so concerned, I'm sure this school isn't THAT different to your old one." She said, misunderstanding.

"No, no, I mean like everything is literally the one for one opposite! The colors are all complimentary and everything, e-even you guys! You guys are the opposite of my team back at Beacon!" She said, getting varying degrees of concerned looks from the three girls.

"Uh..." Liang started. "Maybe you should rest a bit more, you sound a tad... hysterical..."

Ruby pointed a finger at her, startling the group a bit. "You! You're the opposite of my big sister Yang! I'll prove it, I can guess everything about your life!" She claimed.

"Uh... go for it?" Liang quietly responded.

Ruby took a deep breath before speaking fastly. "Your parents were huntsmen on a team together, the same team as your younger sister, who I'm just gonna assume is Peridot,'s mother, who passed away in a super vague mysterious way that your dad doesn't like to talk about, and your then mom left, and you grew up with your dad, little sister, and your mom's brother, is that close?" She said, all in one breath.

Liang blinked, shocked. "I... uh... y-yeah...?"

She pointed to Schwarz. "And you! Your family's a big dust company or something that your father married into, and you have an older sister who works for the military named... a-after a season!" Ruby said, somehow unable to discern the opposite of 'Winter' in this flurry of 'ahas'.

Schwarz was also surprised now. "That's... mostly correct, yes..."

Timber looked a bit excited. "Wooow, do me now!"

Ruby smirked confidently and pointed at her. "You're redeeming yourself for this sorta dark past thing that you did, and you hang out with this guy from another school who's here for the tournament a lot, and also you're, uh..." She looked up for ears on her head, seeing nothing, then going to the other obvious conclusion, but where would she... the poofy skirt! "And you've got 'you know what' hidden 'you know where'. Censored for privacy." She smiled, not wanting to out her in this semi-public space.

Timber gasped, seeming to believe her hypothesis now. "W-Wow... I... yeah, th-that checks out." She said, in awe of Ruby's intellect.

Ruby giggled, grinning triumphantly. "Yes! Finally, I've got something that makes sense about this place!" Her grin faded though as she realized something. "I... s-still don't know how I got here... but at least I can sort of draw from my experiences now!"

"Yes, I suppose you can..." Schwarz said, attempting a smile after all that. "So, by that logic, you and Peridot are opposites?" She asked the great deducer.

"Yep! What's she like? Wait, don't tell me, I'll guess... sheeee's... mature and formal and stuff, and she likes, uh, vegetables or something." She said.

"Well, not exactly," Schwarz said. "She tries to be mature, but she's sort of just a normal girl. Oh, and she hates vegetables. She's much more keen on chocolate."

"Chocolate chip?" Ruby asked.

"If the rest of the cookie is also chocolate, yeah," Liang said, smiling a bit. "She is a metabolic miracle, seriously..."

Timber chuckled. "Yeah, and a dental one too, how does she not get tons of cavities?!" She asked Liang.

She shrugged. "Brushes her teeth twice a day, I guess. Plus, we are trying to curb her addiction."

Ruby looked a bit worried now. "...You're not gonna try and make me stop eating cookies, are you?" She asked.

Schwarz giggled softly. "No, we don't really have the right to boss you around, Ruby. You can make your own dietary decisions." She said, smiling at her.

"Yeah," Liang nodded. "As long as you can stay in shape to be a huntress, you eat whatever you want."

Ruby pumped her fists into the air. "Woohoo!" She was a lot happier now. Of course, this didn't fix how much she missed her team or the fear she may never see them again, but it would put those thoughts out of her head for awhile.

Meanwhile, in the headmaster's office, Ozpin leaned forward at his desk, folding his fingers into a little pyramid. This was certainly a first, to his knowledge. He had no doubt some form of magic was involved here. Miss Rose was completely unfamiliar with the simple truths of the world of Dawn, unable to even name the kingdom she was in. On top of that, the resemblance, and antonymy of the missing Peridot Thorn was evident to him.

He certainly didn't cause this, he kept what little magic he had to himself. That meant that this was the doing of some other magic wielder... which means it could be the work of his old foe... but what's the motivation?

Ozpin took a sip of his tea, his preferred drink, and continued to ruminate on this, as some more visitors for Ruby neared the nurse's office.


	6. Peridot Completely Solves Her Problem

Peridot had found a little alcove to sit at in the library, a nice quiet place where she could concentrate and try to calm down. The library was silent, not a peep could be heard, but the inside Peridot's head was the pounding of a million thoughts all at once. She was racking her poor little head for an answer, a solution to this problem.

She had a wild imagination, so, there were quite a few ideas to whittle down. Maybe this was some kind of test that all huntresses go through? If so, she hoped she was doing alright, she was pretty sure she was.

Or maybe this was some simulation, and she'd actually been abducted by an evil syndicate of scientists, or aliens or something? She'd be pretty angry if that were the case, especially since she fell asleep before she could see how this problem was solved in that one movie she and Liang watched.

But what could be THE most probable, realistic, and scientific answer? She shut her eyes, hands on her temples, trying to think...

Then someone cleared her throat and she fell out of her chair. She was a bit on edge from all that speculating, about to scream, but then she remembered she was in a library, so she just stared wide-eyed and screamed internally.

It was that one blond kid she bumped into, along with his teammates. Or they're just random friends, but eh, four people in a huntress academy, probably best to just assume they're on a team. He seemed a bit surprised by her reaction. "U-Uh... sorry?" He glanced around nervously, communication was not Mr. Arc's strong point.

Peridot immediately started whisper-yelling. "What do you want, who are you, why did you follow me, is this a simulation, what do you know about this whole thing!?"

JNPR looked at each other for a moment. Jaune cleared his throat awkwardly again. "W-We, uh..."

Nora stepped in to help out. "We wanted to see what was wrong. You looked a bit... hm... what's the word...?"

"Panicked," Ren said.

"Yeah, panicked!" She said, smiling. "You need to talk about it?"

Peridot narrowed her eyes. "...Have we... hold on, hold the phone..." She stood up, walking up to Jaune, getting on her tippy toes in order to inspect his face closely. This was sort of a violation of personal space and flustered Jaune quite a bit.

His teammates watched on, confused, Pyrrha speaking up. "What are you doing...?" She asked.

"I think... I've seen you somewhere before... all of you..." She went over to Nora, looking her up and down.

"Well, I don't believe we've met..." Pyrrha said. "Though you may recognize me, I suppose..."

Peridot looked over. "Why?"

"Oh, cause she's this famous prodigy, or tournament winner, or arena fighter, or something cool like that," Nora said, while she was striking some cool action poses while Peridot looked her over.

Peridot racked her brain for a moment. "...There was a super prodigy arena fighter tournament winner back at my school too... but she had blue hair... and silver armor stuffs... and was wayyy less nice than you seem to be..." She said, gears in her mind turning.

"Oh, where was she from?" Pyrrha asked, thinking that she might've met this other girl at some point.

"Tranquil, I think... the academy was called Barrack, maybe..." Peridot said.

"Tranquil?" Pyrrha asked.

Peridot sighed. "You too? I really must not be in... my... worrrrrldohmygooooosh." She said, going wide-eyed.

JNPR again looked at each other, before Peridot yelled out. "I'M IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!" This got her a lot of stares, and shushing, as this was a library.

Jaune was the first to speak up. "...What?"

"It's soooo obvious!" She continued, whisper-yelling now to avoid more shushing and judgemental stares. "I feel like a grade-A dummins for not figuring it out sooner! Those three girls must've been this bizarro world's version of my team! And you're the bizarro version of Team VINL!"

Before any of the four students could come up with a response to this, she ran off into the hallways again, where they decided to follow her. She spent a good long while running up to students and faculty and yelling about them being the alternate versions of the ones from her world.

It never really occurred to her that this wasn't really solving anything, it just made her feel smart. She deduced what was going on, who cares if she doesn't know how to fix it? Well, she did, it just wasn't crossing her mind at the moment.

JNPR left for class, trying to tell Peridot she should get to her classes as well, which did not reach her through her eureka moment. She continued to run around, giggling triumphantly to herself, for hours. Eventually, RWBY-or at least WBY-stumbled upon her.

Weiss sighed as she saw her pointing out students and screaming random names. "Oh gosh, this weirdo again...?"

"Guess they still haven't found her team," Blake said.

Yang nodded. "Mhm..." She quietly agreed, looking a bit nervous. She'd been very worried for her sister throughout their classes, and seeing that the problem had seemingly not at all been solved was not good for her to see.

Weiss walked up to her as she yelled 'Viridianna' at Velvet Scarlatina. "Are you EVER normal, you dolt!?"

Peridot jumped and looked at her, grinning a bit concerningly. "Ah! Not-Schwarz!" She shouted. "Good to find you again, I figured out what's going on!"

Weiss cocked an eyebrow, irritated with this girl. "What are you talking about?"

Peridot pointed at herself. "I'm from another universe! And I've OBVIOUSLY swapped places with my alternate universe counterpart, who must be this 'Ruby' girl you were all talking about!"

The members of team RWBY just stared at her. She rolled her eyes. "I can prove it!" She pointed at Weiss. "You're a member of this dust family," She pointed at Blake. "You've got big secrets that no one can know about but the team," She pointed at Yang. "And you're Ruby's big sister!"

"That doesn't really prove your absurd point, weirdo!" Weiss shouted.

Blake was a bit conflicted, did she know, or was that just a lucky guess?

Yang stepped up to her. "Your sister, she's only a half-sister, right?"

Peridot nodded.

"And you two only live with your dad and your uncle, right?" She asked, Peridot nodding once more.

"And they both teach at a training academy, and they used to be huntsmen here!" Peridot said.

Yang looked down at her. "...Okay, I believe you."

"Are you insane?!" Weiss yelled. "This is completely ridiculous!"

"Well, we don't have anything else to go off of, do we?" Yang asked.

Peridot started rattling off different kingdoms and academies, all totally different from the ones the three girls knew, further proving her bizarre claim. "See?! Alternate universe!"

"So, how are we going to get you and Ruby back to your normal universes?" Yang asked.

Peridot paused. Then her head slowly fell, expression darkening. "...I have no idea."


End file.
